Jiminy Cricket, Snow White, Snoopy and all the rest in the Santa’s Lane ensemble of characters will smile brighter this Christmas season with fresh paint by Vicksburg seniors.

The cast of cartoon cut-outs was donated to the City of Vicksburg following the deaths of their creators, Lester and Jackie Grant, whose home on Freetown Road became a yearly destination for families when the figurines he cut from plywood and carefully painted were set out and lighted for the season. The Santa’s Lane decorations have been displayed in various locations downtown for the past several years.

Snoopy and the rest were showing signs of age, but volunteers at the Vicksburg Senior Center dedicated themselves this fall to restoring a youthful shine to the many characters who now populate the Art Park at Catfish Row, and will remain there for the Christmas season.

“They were a Godsend,” landscape director Jeff Richardson said of Vicksburg seniors who spent many hours painting the decorations.

Richardson said he had been wondering how to buff up the figures when he remembered hearing about art classes at the Vicksburg Senior Center.

“It was like a light bulb,” he said.

Many at the senior center, not just those enrolled in the art class, stepped up to the challenge.

They said painting more than 100 cut-outs and mixing the colors to match the original paint was fun and challenging.

“We gave up our canasta for this,” said Fran Brown, who worked nearly every day painting the figurines.

“It was a lot of fun. A lot of work, but a lot of fun,” said Loretta Sanderford, another regular who applied herself to the project.

“Hard on the back,” added Liz Redmon, who was still wearing some paint on her clothes Monday.

Faced with an early November deadline and 120 figures, volunteers from the senior center started early in the day, and some of them said they worked 40 hours a week on the project. They worked in the basement of a city building several blocks from the center. They said working brought them closer together, and some said they made new friends.

A corps of about a dozen were there regularly, which included just one man, Jim Donley, who came with his wife, Judy.

“They had to be sanded first, washed down, and we varnished them when we were finished,” Redmon said.

The figures took a beating during several years when they were set up along downtown Washington Street. They blew over often, and some were run over by cars.

“My guys were going down there twice a day picking up figurines,” Richardson said. “We had a lot stolen. We’re still looking for some Smurfs.”

“They were really in sad condition, some of them,” said Brown.

A city crew set up the cut-outs at the children’s art park Tuesday morning, and a group from the senior center came to watch.

Center director Jennifer Harper said the group was honored earlier this month by the Board of Mayor and Alderman and treated to a lunch banquet by BancorpSouth, to recognize the effort.